Known in the art, there is the U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,897 assigned to B. T. Cunningham and P. V. Richard, describing a microstructure comprising a surface member and at least one leg, a proximate end of the leg being disposed on a substrate and a distant end being elevated from the substrate and terminating at the surface member. In this microstructure, the legs have a bent section which may be prone to structural damage especially when made of stressed thin films. The structures equipped with the bent legs may also be more prone to shape distortions also caused by the stress in thin films used for this structure construction. Bending of the legs may also cause their disconnection from the substrate.
Also known in the art, there are the U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,663 granted to L. J. Hornbeck and the U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,649 granted to W. F. Keenan. The supports described in these two patents are made entirely of metal or metal alloy films. In these all metal or metal alloy supports, the selected metal or metal alloy must exhibit at the same time proper mechanical properties in order to mechanically support the platform, proper electrical properties in order to reduce the electrical resistance of the connection between the sensor layer placed on the platform and the readout electronic circuit mounted in the typically silicon substrate, and proper chemical properties so that said metal or metal alloy be compatible, i.e. not be damaged, with all the gaseous and liquid chemical products used during the microstructure fabrication process. The combination of all of these properties severely limits the choice of suitable metals or metal alloys and manufacturing processes. Moreover, all metal supports provide a poor thermal isolation of the microplatform due to a relatively high thermal conductivity of metals.